Co-operative Plan for Handicrafts

Co-operative Plan for Handicrafts

Artisans

Craft shops

Handicraft

Handicraft industries

In this paper written by Raymond E. Pippin in the early 1930s, Pippin puts forward a plan for a craft cooperative system which would support crafts people across the United States. He outlines the problems of "Chaos and Ruin" resulting from the Great Depression of 1929. He notes that while the federal government helped many people, "the class of near artist or artisans" that continued to scrape by through this difficult time have been overlooked. He notes that "One of the most serious handicaps to the proper development of handicrafts in our country ... is lack of any type of cooperation in marketing and financing for production at a living wage." Pippin's plan would organize groups of crafts people on farms where they could grow their food and work together to create a marketable product which would be sent to warehouses outside of metropolitan areas across the country. He also explains a system of shares which would allow workers and distributors to own the cooperative. Pippin was himself a chair maker in the South. Presumably this paper found its way into the hands of the Tennessee Valley Authority who was hoping to act along these lines with the creation of the Southern Highlanders, Inc.

Pippin, Raymond E

Records of the Southern Highlanders, Inc.

Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723

1930/1935

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

jpg;

manuscripts (documents)

eng

Text

13208

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/13208

2006-12-22

All rights reserved. For permissions, contact Hunter Library Special Collections, Western Carolina U, Cullowhee, NC 28723;

Appalachian Region, Southern

11" x 8.5"(dimension)

Craft Revival